Avoiding the usual Leicester Square mayhem, Director Tony Scott and Producer Jerry Bruckheimer took the stars, fans and press way out west last night (yes, Kensington High Street is miles away) for the UK premiere of the Denzel Washington-led psyche-thriller Déjà Vu.
The movie tells the story of Doug Carlin (Washington), an ATF agent on a mission to solve the mysterious bombing of a New Orleans’ ferry. When Carlin delves deeper into the investigation all is not as it seems, as he discovers a secret government device capable of bending space and time, and with it, the chance to prevent catastrophe.
They say that all good things come in threes (or something) and this movie is something of a reunion for several of the main participants. Action-pair extraordinaire Scott and Bruckheimer are back together for a third time, following a string of big-hitters that includes Enemy Of The State, Crimson Tide and **Top Gun, whilst Déjà Vu also marks Washington and Scott’s third time leading the charge on set. However, unlike these established compatriots of the explosive action adventure, there was one addition to the Tony-Jerry-Denzel assembly – newcomer Paula Patton: **“The crowd is massive out there and I just can’t believe they know who I am”, said the actress as she arrived at the Odeon. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams that I’d end up working with Denzel Washington and Tony Scott. It’s a bit overwhelming.” As the sole female lead in Déjà Vu, Patton’s praise for her co-star and director was clear: “He [Tony] is a very manly man, but if you look at his films you’ll see that all the female characters involved are very, very strong. And Denzel…it’s like watching someone jump down a rabbit hole and become someone else. If you want to keep up him with you better follow him down that hole. You have to take a lot of risks”.
It seems some risks were taken both on set and during pre-production, as the director decided to shoot in the Katrina-devastated New Orleans: “It was actually very easy” explained Scott. “The original script was set in Long Island and I thought the location was divorced from the concept and the story. New Orleans is much more romantic – much more mysterious. It became a third character in the movie and the people were so welcoming. It was only hard in sense that we had no laundry and no room service!” (laughs). Washington was also behind the decision to re-enter the water-logged city: “The Louisiana film commission really wanted us there. They really wanted to bring the movie industry back to the city and it was great that we were the first to shoot there.”
The location wasn’t the only thing discussed during the preparation for Déjà Vu, as Scott was keen to point out: “We did a lot of research. We always try and find real-life characters to base the parts on. We had a guy called Jerry Rubin in this movie who was the basis for Denzel’s character. It’s great to have that sort of role model – it’s a very easy frame of reference. I always try and cast my movies in the real world first and only then do I bring the actors in.” This commitment was one of the reasons Scott brought Washington back into the fray: “He delivers”, said the director, “I love and respect the way he works and I think the feeling’s mutual. He loves doing research – a lot of actors don’t like doing that”.
With the movie set to hit screens across the UK next week, what is Scott’s (a man that hasn’t had a particularly easy ride with the critics over the years) take on his relationship with the press: “It’s ninety-percent criticism”, he laughed, “the critics fucking hate me. They always say I produce style over content, but I don’t really care. I like to use style to look at the world in a different way.”
Finally, as the guests took their seats and the lights began to dim, Denzel Washington gave his own personal summing up of Déjà vu: “It’s what Tony calls a Science-Faction movie. I think it’s a Science-Faction-Thriller-Love-Story in reverse.” ****
*To see the Story-Love-Thiller-Faction-Science that is Déjà Vu you can visit cinemas from next Friday (December 15th). We’ll have to wait until 2008 for Tony Scott’s The Warriors. *****